


ring out the bells, fling out my arms, sing out the news

by AozoraNoShita



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: F/F, Graduate School, Meet-Cute, Music major, piano playing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 11:03:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7615528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AozoraNoShita/pseuds/AozoraNoShita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Theodosia meets a pianist in the basement. They harmonize.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ring out the bells, fling out my arms, sing out the news

**Author's Note:**

> first femslash, eyyyy  
> listen to me pick out the piano pieces [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea0uO0X5Z3A) as like background music for reading or something, you don't even have to look at it!

Theo had tried four out of the five doors to the music building, and to her relief found the fifth door had been left unlocked. She quickly shouldered it open and then kicked it shut behind her, unwilling to let go of her dual grip on the pleasantly hot coffee cup, especially with the freezing winter air attempting to follow her inside. Typically the building would have been open during daylight hours, but with most of the campus closed down following the recent snowfall she supposed she was lucky someone had forgotten to lock the one entrance. Though to someone who’d spent most of her life in the northern part of the country, closing down for such a relatively small amount of snow seemed ridiculous.

Still cradling her cup reverently, she made a beeline for the stairwell and started her descent into the basement. It wasn’t as warm as the upper floors, where the classrooms and recital rooms were, but it was divided into numerous smaller rooms instead. The music majors half-jokingly referred to the basement as hell, but really it was chock full of practice rooms for undergrad and graduate students alike, each about ten feet by ten feet, and all equipped with a single mirror and a piano. The pianos ranged in style and quality, from untuned baby grands to electric keyboards, but they all more or less played. Usually at least ten of the rooms were occupied by practicing students, but on a snow day everyone had elected to either stay in bed or descend on the main quad for a giant snowball fight.

Except, Theo realized as she cocked her head and listened carefully, it seemed like one other person had found their way into the music building. She walked up and down the rows of doors, trying to find the source. The practice rooms weren’t _quite_ soundproofed, which was interesting when there were multiple people down here, but this was definitely only one piano, and playing rather quietly. A few minutes later, she was fairly certain she was standing in front of the right door. The playing was still quiet, whoever it was must be hitting the keys rather delicately, and it lacked the finesse of a professional player—notes were stumbled over and missed every few beats. Pretty, though. And Theo recognized the song, from a cartoon her daughter liked to watch, although she couldn’t remember the name. She shifted a bit, and inside her bag her keys bumped into the metal of her water bottle. The small clanking noise was apparently enough to alert the musician of her presence, because the music came to an abrupt stop and, after a moment, switched to classical music instead.

Theo found herself fighting a grin. Although the genre had switched to something more “respectable,” the player couldn’t seem to make up their mind about what song to play, switching between Bach to Pachelbel to Beethoven, then Tchaikovsky, back to a double dose of Beethoven, Debussy, some Strauss, and then into a passionate banging out of Offenbach’s polka from _Orpheus_ , including the can-can break in the middle. After this trailed off, there was a palpable silence from inside. Deciding to have mercy on the poor musician, Theo knocked on the door. Immediately there was a slamming noise, like something inside had been dropped on the floor. She winced.

A moment later, a high and clear voice called out, “Come in!”

Her first thought was that this person _had_ to be a fantastic singer, with a voice like that. Then she opened the door, and her second thought was, _Hello, beautiful_

A dark-haired woman in light jeans and a soft-looking turquoise sweater sat perched on the piano stool, fingers still placed over the keys but with her head angled towards the door to watch Theo enter. Her expression was polite but wary. Her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and Theo’s eyes were drawn down the line of her forearms to her long, graceful fingers, perfect for playing piano.

“Hello,” she said, leaving off the ‘beautiful,’ at least for now. “Sorry to disturb you, I was just curious about who else had braved the cold on this lovely winter morning.”

“Oh! Of course.” She turned around fully, lifting a hand for Theo to shake. (She really did have lovely hands.) “Eliza Schuyler.”

“Theodosia Pre—excuse me, Bartow. Call me Theo.”

Eliza, bless her, didn’t ask about the near-stumble on her last name. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Are you by chance from New York?”

“Joisey, actually,” she responded dryly, allowing the accent to come through for a moment.

Eliza laughed, musically, like a tinkling bell. “Then you think this is a ridiculous response to such a small amount of snow, right? It’s not just me.”

Theo lifted her coffee cup in a mock toast. “Finally, someone sensible.”

Eliza laughed again, then gestured towards the rickety extra seat in the corner. “Would you like to sit down?”

“Don’t mind if I do.” She made sure to wink at Eliza as she sat down, and was pleased to see an answering blush. Nice.

“We-ell what brings you down here?” Eliza asked, tucking her hair behind her ears.

“I was going to practice singing,” Theo told her. “But then I heard you playing, and I recognized the song. I don’t think I’ve seen you around before?”

Eliza’s blush deepened. “Oh, yes, that. It’s from a cartoon my son watches. He’s actually the reason I’m down here practicing.”

Theo took a sip of her coffee and motioned for Eliza to continue.

“I’ve been trying to teach him piano, but it’s been years since I’ve played and I’m a bit rusty. Normally I’d practice at home but my, uh, partner is watching him today and they’ve built a blanket fort over the piano and I’d heard the music building was open even to non-majors so I just...walked to campus and wandered in.”

“Ahh, so that’s why I haven’t seen you; I would have recognized that face if I had.” The line was cliche, but it had the desired effect: Eliza bit her lip and smiled bashfully. “What is your major, then?” Theo asked.

“Business,” was the immediate response.

Ooh, or maybe not so bashful. “And your partner…?”

“Oh, he’s not my _partner_ -partner. My son, Philip, is adopted but it’s much easier to adopt when you’re not a single parent so—”

Theo blinked and leaned forward in her seat. “Did you fake marry someone to adopt a kid?”

“Nothing as official as marriage!” Eliza laughed. “Just, it looks better on paper, having the two of us.”

Non-romantic partner and a kid, Theo could work with that. “My daughter watches the same cartoon, I think, and that’s why I recognized the song. I won’t bother you with all the baby daddy issues,” she waved a hand as if to dispel said issues from the air, “but I have a close friend who's watching my kid today, too. It’s nice not to have to do everything yourself.”

“Mm, yes, Alex loves Philip a lot but honestly he’s a bit hopeless when it comes to, ah, actual parenting.”

“Total pushover?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“Aaron’s the same way with my Theodosia; can’t deny her anything.”

Eliza started smiling again. “Theodosia? Named after you?”

“Of course. She’s perfect, after all.”

The other woman started giggling, and Theo grinned. _Nice_.

“If you wanted to keep practicing, I’d love to listen,” she told her. “But don’t feel like you have to play classical music just because I’m here.”

“Oh, that! I was so surprised when I heard someone outside.” She shook her head. “My fingers remember those songs from years ago, but I really came down here to learn some songs my son will recognize.”

Theo shrugged. “So play those.”

Eliza hesitated for just a moment, but then picked up a binder from the floor (probably what Theo had heard dropping earlier) and opened it to a page of sheet music that looked like it had been printed out from online. She gave Theo one last nervous look, “I really haven’t practiced these at all yet…”

“No judgement,” Theo told her. “I know how much practice has to go into a piece before you can perform it properly, I am a music major.”

“See, that last bit just made me nervous again,” Eliza told her, only half-joking, but nonetheless began to pick out the first chords. As she got into the swing of the piece, she seemed to forget Theo was there, repeating the page a few times with more confidence each repetition.

Theo recognized the song again. She swayed along as Eliza finally got the timing right—a waltz, _one_ two three _one_ two three _one_ two three—and, unable to help herself, started to sing. “ _Ten minutes ago, I met you...I looked up when you came through the door...my head started reeling you gave me the feeling the room had no ceiling or floor…_ ” When she first chimed in Eliza jumped a little, but managed to stay on beat even though she hit a few sour notes. She obviously wasn’t used to playing accompaniment for a vocalist; usually when Theo sang with a pianist the focus was on the vocals and the piano part didn’t play the main melody, only the harmony, and the pianist followed her lead rather than the other way around. This was nice, though. “ _I have found her, she’s an angel, with the dust of the stars in her eyes...we are dancing, we are flying, and she’s taking me back to the skies…_ ”

Eliza sang the last line with her. “ _I may never come down to earth again_.” Her singing voice was even prettier than Theo had imagined.

Eliza hit the last few chords and gently removed her fingers from the keys, turning back to look at her. She was smiling and flushed and Theo found her voice escaping her without permission once again. “Would you like to get coffee?”

Once again, Eliza laughed. “You’re holding coffee right now.”

Theo shrugged. “Well, when I finish this one. Good day for it, what with the snow and all.”

“Mm,” Eliza nodded, mock serious, “it _is_ an awful lot of snow.” She dropped the serious expression after a few seconds though, and beamed. “I’d love to.”

“And in the meantime, I’d love to hear you play some more.”

Eliza flipped a few pages. “From another cartoon,” she explained. “Maybe you’ll recognize this one, too.” And started to play.

Theo listened as Eliza ran through the piece a few times, content in a way that only good coffee, good music, and good company could produce.

She started to sing, and Eliza sang along: “ _Let’s go in the garden, you’ll find something waiting…_ ”

      

**Author's Note:**

> haven't written too much of these two, so I'm not sure about this but uhhh here it is!! I'm sleep-deprived and wrote this in about an hour which is...pretty fast, for me  
> they're so cute tho  
> songs mentioned are: stronger than you from steven universe, jesu joy of man's desiring, canon in d, pastoral symphony, waltz of the flowers, moonlight sonata, fur elise, claire de lune, blue danube waltz, polka from orpheus, ten minutes ago from rodgers and hammerstein's cinderella, and everything stays from adventure time
> 
> comments/kudos super appreciated :)


End file.
